There is no way a rodent can defeat a leopard.
Or is there?
Ouch! That's gotta hurt.
If you’re thinking about the pickiest of rodents,
the porcupine, then the answer is yes.
Even though they don’t throw their quills when threatened,
your best bet is to stay away.
When facing a predator, a porcupine
will most likely swing its sharp quills around.
They may not kill other animals,
but those quills sure hurt.
The most common porcupine species live in North America,
where they sometimes crash parties at campgrounds
and chew on canoe paddles.
But other porcupines live in
Although they walk around heavily armed, porcupines are
mostly harmless. Their bodies have soft hair,
and the sharp quills on their backs, sides, and tails usually
lie flat unless the porcupine feels threatened.
Then they stand up to remind potential attackers
that this animal is no easy meal.
The quills detach when something touches them,
and porcupines grow new quills to replace the lost ones.
A typical North American porcupine may have over
So if you ever see a porcupine, stay a safe distance
of 6 m (20 ft) away and do not disturb them.
They can be fearless. Recent studies show that porcupines
quills to attack other animals, including leopards.
And if a porcupine attacks you,
you're in for a nasty experience.
Getting spiked by a porcupine quill can be very painful,
and removing them is not easy.
The quills have barbs and scales that penetrate skin and
help the quill lodge into the tissue very firmly.
And if you try to pull them out, they tend to move inward.
Clever.
The deeper they penetrate, the more
infection they can cause.
The best advice is to get medical help
to remove the quills and treat your wounds.
But what happens if a porcupine accidentally stabs
itself or another porcupine?
Luckily, their quills have an antibiotic coating,
but it only works on porcupines.
And as for mating, they have a weird ritual.
After winning a female's attention,
the male sprays her from up to 1.8 m (6 ft) away
with his urine.
When the female porcupine lowers her quills
and moves her barbed tail to the side,
the two can mate without hurting each other.
But porcupine quills could help us.
They are extremely resistant to buckling under pressure
and could hold the secret to lighter, stronger materials.
This could future materials for buildings and vehicles.
The quills' mix of shell, foam, and stiffeners could also help
us design biologically inspired structures.
According to researchers at the University of Toronto,
the foam in quills helps them absorb energy
and stay lightweight.
If we could design medical needles and surgical staples
with the same structure, they would be much smaller,
require 56% less force to enter flesh,
and likely cause less damage to our tissues.
Now that we've met the prickliest rodent, why don't
we take a look at the most relaxed rodent in the world,
the capybara.
Having a body covered with sharp quills and using them to
defeat predators is what porcupines do.
And that’s what makes them Crazy Creatures.